The occupation began the demolition policy in the city of Jerusalem since the occupation of its eastern part in 1967, with the aim of strangling the people of Jerusalem and preventing the expansion of the Jerusalem neighborhoods within the framework of the policy of forced displacement and Judaization of the city.

In 1973, Golda Meir formed a special committee to monitor and increase the rate of house demolitions in the city of Jerusalem with the aim of changing the demographic equation in the city to 25% Palestinians versus 75% settlers.

The demolition policy in Jerusalem is a form of psychological warfare when Jerusalemites are forced to demolish their homes with their own hands, as they are forced to do so in order to avoid paying all the costs of the occupation’s demolition of the facility, including the rent of bulldozers and their fuel, the rent of the occupation municipality workers and the special forces accompanying them, and other fines and violations.

The occupation classifies the pretexts for demolition into four:

Military demolition: carried out by the army under the pretext of security and protecting the settlers.

Punitive demolition: The occupation seeks to impose collective punishment on families from which resistance fighters come out to carry out operations against it.

Administrative demolition: This is the most common in the city of Jerusalem, and is carried out under the pretext of not having a permit, and is carried out by a decision issued by the mayor of the occupation in Jerusalem.

Judicial demolition: It takes place after a decision is issued by the occupation courts ordering demolition, and is linked to racist laws, the most prominent of which is the “Kaminitz” law.

The occupation imposes impossible conditions on Jerusalemites to issue building permits. These conditions are accompanied by exorbitant costs that reach millions of shekels in some neighborhoods, followed by a wait that lasts for many years, up to 10 years, and usually all of this ends with the rejection of the permit application.

127 facilities were demolished in Jerusalem during the first half of this year, including 42 facilities that were demolished by their owners themselves.